Over £500 million to be spent on Hertfordshire adult care services in budget
Over £500 million will be spent on adult care services in Hertfordshire this year, taking up the biggest expenditure among council departments.
Figures show that of the £1.2 billion set aside by the county council for frontline services in the 2026/2027 budget, almost half (£563 million) will go to adult care services.
Children’s services follow with £310 million earmarked for spending, while £133 million will finance growth and environment, and £123 million will go towards community protection. A further £102 million will be spent on resources.
A report submitted to the county council’s adult care services cabinet panel on Thursday, January 22, stated: “To help maintain a compassionate and inclusive Hertfordshire where every resident has access to the support and services they need to lead a safe, fulfilling, healthy and dignified life, we will spend more than £562 million in our adult care services. This makes up almost half of our budget.
“It supports older people, people with disabilities, and people living with mental health challenges, as well as those who care for family and loved ones.”
Funding for adult care services is being increased by £47 million, with £23 million to meet the needs of the growing number of older people and adults with disabilities who need care. Elsewhere, £21 million will fund “high-quality care and support”, such as residential and home care, plus £6 million in innovation for more personalised care services.
The council is highly critical of the Government’s Fair Funding Review, which it states is causing a reduction of £42 million in central grant funding over three years, leaving Hertfordshire as “one of the worst-impacted councils in the country”.
During the meeting, chairman Cllr Sally Symington said: “Obviously, this [budget] is being set against a considerable potential loss of £42 million over the next three years. But despite that, we’ve set an ambitious and affordable budget.”
Director of planning and resources Jackie Albery told the meeting that the council supports over 30,500 adult residents with services, with 15,000 receiving long-term support and a similar number receiving short-term assistance.
She said: “In a year, we receive over 78,000 requests for support, which is equivalent to 1,500 requests a week, which is quite overwhelming.
“We complete nearly 15,000 assessments, and that can be financial assessments, as well as Care Acts assessments [for unpaid carers] and over 29,000 reviews of existing support.”
Cllr Adrian England (Lib Dem, Hemel Town), referred to £9.7million spent on the “connect and prevent” initiative to promote independence.
He said: “I certainly welcome what is a continuing effort towards prevention, and the retention of agency [staff] for the purposes of maintaining independence.
“At the same time, this delivers for us an efficiency for the council which we need… The pressure on this particular part of the council is enormous, and it’s absolutely incredible what you’ve managed to do here.”
Cllr Tony Kingsbury said: “It is obviously a massive budget for the council and the fair funding review hasn’t helped with some of this… I note in this year’s budget that we have continued with the carers’ hub we put in last year. I’m really pleased that’s continuing.
“In terms of this year’s budget, there’s quite an emphasis on chargeable income and additional income, so I wonder if we can have a comment on [whether] that is unusual and how that works itself out?”
Ms Albery responded: “In terms of the chargeable income, some of that emphasis is actually just a difference in presentation.
“Most of the increase in chargeable income is through the increase in the number of people we will be supporting, and the demography. So, the demography [is] is we increase the number of people receiving care, more people will be making a contribution.
“In addition to that, we’ve been making sure that everyone who should be making a contribution, is making a contribution.”